I often get requests to see my video Six about a group of teenagers who killed a family in East Tennessee. I am no longer selling the documentary, but PJM has been kind enough to upload it to YouTube so that PJM readers can watch it if they wish. It is now almost a decade old, but much of the complexity of mass murder still holds true today. I hope my readers find it of interest.

Yes, I like Dr. Samenow's work a lot; he worked for many years in a prison setting doing research with criminals and focused on their distorted cognitive thinking. My favorite of his books is "Inside the Criminal Mind."

This is the kind of stuff that scares me more than any horror movie. Real people have a chance encounter with a bunch of psychos and getting killed, raped, maimed, mutilated, and such.

I live in Applachian Kentucky, a couple of hours from Pikeville. I know kids that got to school at Pikeville University. The sort of people, kids and situations you see in this movie are all to common. Whackos abound.

Small towns can be great, but than can also be hell. The pettiness, cliques, and social ostracism can be impossible to escape. It's as if your stuck in "Mean Girls" forever. That's probably one reason why many kids, usually the best and brightest, leave.

My sons have no desire to return and live in their hometown. My daughter say she wants to stay for a while anyway, but I doubt that will last.

Doubt satanism was the main motivating factor for the murders- just simple panic to prevent identification.

From a practical POV, two issues emerge as potentially preventative measures.

First, nation wide school choice with vouchers. Private school education and more structured HS environment help in forming troubled teens, as opposed to encouraging "express yourself" without consequences liberal public schools environment.

Second, do away with the liberals' push for outpatient mental health treatment as opposed to prolonged hospitalization. The ACLU and liberals have dismantled psychiatric institutions all in the name of "human rights" for the mentally ill. The consequences are exponential rise in the homeless, borderline functional, ill individuals let loose on society all leading to assaults, thefts, rapes and murders. Many of them preventable. Very sad.﻿

While there's a lot of truth there, what you mention is more exacerbation.

Sociopathic behavior goes back CENTURIES, and whether it's more common now, or just better documented, is the question. Then, too, an important question is, "...what was the cause of such behavior on a NATIONAL SCALE?".

Yes, I like Dr. Samenow's work a lot; he worked for many years in a prison setting doing research with criminals and focused on their distorted cognitive thinking. My favorite of his books is "Inside the Criminal Mind."